You could physically feel the political ground shifting last week as Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced he would no longer accept campaign contributions from city contractors and members of their immediate families.

A quick note to the everyone at the River Cities' Reader. I was shocked to read the articles on the RME issues. (See "River Music Experience's New Direction Dashes Dreams" and "Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes," Issue 513, January 26-February 1, 2005.

Although you cannot see its force, the water that flows beneath the frozen ice of the winter river's surface is an active and vital power. It is much like the machine that created the RME - an unseen current. Just because it is not visible does not mean that it is not a powerful, imposing, and long-term force.

When I was in seventh grade, my chorus class took a charter bus up to Chicago to see Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. From a row near the back of the theatre, I watched the vibrant speck that was Donnie Osmond belt out the tunes "Close Every Door" and "Joseph's Coat." On the return trip home, while the chaperone mothers murmured in fascination over the dark-haired leading man, we chorus students amused ourselves with a Joseph sing-along. The music was just that unforgettable and appealing, even to our usually unimpressionable teenage minds.